Communications

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

1. Records related to the removal and/or addition of names to any memorial in the Gettysburg National Military Park. 2. The standard procedure of the Gettysburg National Military Park for correcting errors on memorials in the Park.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby requestthe following records:

1. Records related to the removal and/or addition of names to any memorialin the Gettysburg National Military Park.2. The standard procedure of the Gettysburg National Military Park forcorrecting errors on memorials in the Park.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe thisrequest is in the public interest. The requested documents will be madeavailable to the general public free of charge as part of the publicinformation service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of thenews media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not forcommercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you wouldinform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I wouldprefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if availableor CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. Ilook forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 businessdays, as the statute requires.

This is in response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request ofJuly 21, 2014, to Gettysburg National Military Park (GETT). Your requesthas been forwarded to me for response.

Before we can respond to your request, please specify more details for thedocuments you are requesting. we are asking you to clarify your requestbecause it is overly broad in scope and may involve an extremely voluminousnumber of records.

- GETT has more than 1300 monuments and memorials. Please state which monument you are requesting records for.

- Also, many of the monuments in the park are more than 100 years old and have a large volume of records associated with them. Can you narrow the time frame for which you are seeking records? For example, you could request records from January 1, 2010 to the date of your request.

- Also, of possible, please clarify your request by stating the name of the individual who is subject of the record (such of the individual who requested a name change on a monument), or the individual who may have been the author of the record or the recipient of the record.

In addition, in your letter you requested a fee waiver. However, you didnot provide sufficient justification to qualify for a fee waiver under theDepartment's FOIA regulations (43 CFR Part 2, Appendix D). The statutoryrequirement for granting a fee waiver is that release of the informationmust be in the public interest because it-

(1) Is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of theoperations and activities of the Government; and

(2) Is not primarily in your commercial interest.

To assist us in making a decision on your request for a fee waiver, we askthat you address the following as applicable. You must be specific inaddressing the Department’s fee waiver criteria for each request yousubmit, regardless of whether you may have been granted a fee waiverpreviously.

(1) Explain how the records you are seeking will be meaningfullyinformative with respect to the bureau's operations and activities. Youridentity, vocation, qualifications, and expertise regarding the requestedinformation may be relevant factors.

(2) Explain how disclosure of the records will contribute to theunderstanding of the public at large or a reasonably broad audience asopposed to only enhancing your knowledge.

(3) Explain how and to whom you intend to disseminate the information andhow you intend to use the information to contribute to public understanding.

(4) Explain how release of the requested records will contributesignificantly to public understanding. For example, is the informationbeing disclosed new, does the information confirm or clarify data releasedpreviously, and is the information publicly available? Explain howdisclosure will increase the level of public understanding that existedprior to disclosure.

(5) Explain whether you have a commercial interest that would be furtheredby disclosure and if so, whether the public interest in disclosure would begreater than any commercial interest you or your organization would have inthe documents.

If you are still interested in obtaining these documents, please provideadditional information to justify your fee waiver request or writtenassurance of your willingness to pay all fees or specify the maximum amountthat you are willing to pay for the bureau to process your request. Thiswill allow us to begin processing your request for records whileconsidering your fee waiver request. If the bureau grants your fee waiverrequest, we will not charge fees to the extent that it grants the waiver.If you have agreed to pay fees up to a particular amount, we will contactyou when we have processed your request up to that amount before proceedingfurther. If we do not hear from you before August 20, 2014, we will denyyour fee waiver request since it does not meet DOI’s fee waiver criteria.We will then close the file on your FOIA request.

If you have any questions concerning this matter, please contact me byemail or at (717) 334-1124 x3121.

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby requestthe following records:

1. Records related to the removal and/or addition of names to any memorialin the Gettysburg National Military Park.2. The standard procedure of the Gettysburg National Military Park forcorrecting errors on memorials in the Park.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe thisrequest is in the public interest. The requested documents will be madeavailable to the general public free of charge as part of the publicinformation service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of thenews media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not forcommercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you wouldinform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I wouldprefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if availableor CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. Ilook forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 businessdays, as the statute requires.

Thank you for your reply. In terms of the request, I agree to narrow the scope as follows:

In regards to the first part of my request ("Records related to the removal and/or addition of names to any memorial in the Gettysburg National Military Park."), I would like to limit the memorial in question to only the Pennsylvania Memorial, and I would like the last (most recent) 50 records, regardless of the date of the record. (If possible, I would like an estimate on how many otherwise responsive records exist, in addition to these 50.) I'm not specifically looking for any particular individual or requestor, and to clarify further, I'm only looking for records that led to an actual change (whether addition or removal) of a name on the memorial itself.

In regards to the second part of my request ("The standard procedure of the Gettysburg National Military Park for correcting errors on memorials in the Park."), I do not feel that narrowing the scope of my request would apply here. To clarify, I'm looking for just the current standard procedure for correcting errors in GETT as it would apply to any monument or memorial. If it helps, I am specifically seeking errors regarding the names of individuals on the monuments or memorials, although I would welcome any procedures for correcting errors other than those.

In regards to the fee waiver, I'll take your questions point by point:

(1) The records sought will be informative with respect to GETT's operations and activities. In the case of correcting errors, even those who have enormous expertise regarding Pennsylvania Civil War history are often unable to answer questions regarding name changes or corrections on GETT memorials. I point to an excerpt from an entry on Norman Gasbarro's Civil War Blog regarding the subject of name corrections (http://civilwar.gratzpa.org/2012/08/correcting-errors-on-the-pennsylvania-gettysburg-monument/) which reads, "Perhaps the National Park Service doesn’t want to admit that the largest monument on the battlefield that it maintains – and the one that has the most names, is the one with the most errors and omissions. This is not a fitting tribute to those who served from Pennsylvania, nor is it a proper memorial to those who gave their lives at Gettysburg."

(2) I point mostly to my answer to the first point, but I will add that as a visitor to GETT recently, I (along with a few other random visitors) were unable to get a sufficient answer to our questions regarding the scratched off or added names to the Pennsylvania memorial. Indeed, the information received will answer the questions that many inquisitive visitors have wanted answers to for some time, as well as historians, genealogists, and others.

(3) In addition to making the information received publicly available on MuckRock.com, I do plan on forwarding the information on to historians (like Norman Gasbarro), genealogists, and individuals who take part in Civil War history groups, like my local roundtable or the Sons of the Union/Confederacy groups.

(4) The information requested is not publicly available, and will contribute significantly to public understanding as it would be newly released.

(5) I have no commercial interest in this request.

Thank you for your time in the consideration of this request. If my fee waiver is denied, please let me know first before closing the file; I would specify at that time the maximum amount I would be willing to pay for the processing of my request.

I left a message for you at the number you provided. My number is (202) 643-4610. Feel free to give me a call back whenever is best for you, and if I'm unable to make it to the phone, leave a message and I'll return your call just as soon as possible.

This email is to document our conversation earlier today, August 6,regarding your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request of July 21, 2014,to Gettysburg National Military Park (GETT).As we agreed during our phone conversation you have changed the scope ofyour FOIA request. You are now requesting:

Records related to the removal and/or addition of names to the PennsylvaniaMemorial at Gettysburg from 1970 through 1989.

Records related to the policies and procedures for correcting errors on thePennsylvania Memorial during the period 1970 through 1989 and recordsrelated to the current policy regarding correcting names on thePennsylvania Memorial at Gettysburg National Military Park.

In addition, we have consulted with the Department of Interior SolicitorsOffice and we have agreed to accept your fee waiver request.

Please email me to confirm that this is a correct statement regarding yourFOIA.

Thank you for taking the time to discuss your request with me and clarifythe its scope.

This email is to document our conversation earlier today, August 6,regarding your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request of July 21, 2014,to Gettysburg National Military Park (GETT).As we agreed during our phone conversation you have changed the scope ofyour FOIA request. You are now requesting:

Records related to the removal and/or addition of names to the PennsylvaniaMemorial at Gettysburg from 1970 through 1989.

Records related to the policies and procedures for correcting errors on thePennsylvania Memorial during the period 1970 through 1989 and recordsrelated to the current policy regarding correcting names on thePennsylvania Memorial at Gettysburg National Military Park.

In addition, we have consulted with the Department of Interior SolicitorsOffice and we have agreed to accept your fee waiver request.

Please email me to confirm that this is a correct statement regarding yourFOIA.

Thank you for taking the time to discuss your request with me and clarifythe its scope.

I can confirm that, per our conversation, I did change the scope of my request to:

Records related to the removal and/or addition of names to the PennsylvaniaMemorial at Gettysburg from 1970 through 1989.

Records related to the policies and procedures for correcting errors on thePennsylvania Memorial during the period 1970 through 1989 and recordsrelated to the current policy regarding correcting names on thePennsylvania Memorial at Gettysburg National Military Park.

Thank you again for helping me out with this and providing some background information on the Memorial.

The attached electronic documents are being provided to you in response toyour Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request of July 21, 2014, toGettysburg National Military Park (GETT). Due to the volume of recordsthere are 7 electronic attachments, numbered 1 through 7. The documentsinclude records related to:

The removal and/or addition of names to the Pennsylvania Memorial at GETTfrom 1970 through 1989.

The policies and procedures for correcting errors on the PennsylvaniaMemorial during the period 1970 through 1989 and records related to thecurrent policy regarding correcting names on the Pennsylvania Memorial atGETT.

For additional information on current National Park Service ManagementPolicies regarding “commemorative works” see section 9.6.4 of the 206Management Policies online at http://www.nps.gov/policy/mp/policies.html.

Your fee request has been granted. If you need any additional informationplease contact me by email or at 717/ 334-1124 x3121.